


Backyard Barbeque 2.0

by ap_91



Series: Backyard Barbeques [2]
Category: Station 19 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 16:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ap_91/pseuds/ap_91
Summary: And we're back - this time Kara tries to set Vic up. Some unexpected additions make an appearance and send the afternoon off the rails.





	Backyard Barbeque 2.0

**Author's Note:**

> Timelines on the show are completely ignored in this fic 
> 
> This one may have gotten away from me a bit but hopefully it's somewhat enjoyable anyways.

Kara had considered the first barbeque a success. She'd thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the people on Bobby's team, including Andy who had seemed to be having a bad day. She had been disappointed to learn that Ripley had declined when Samantha had asked him to meet up for coffee but she wasn't deterred. She'd tried setting him up a few more times but each time he declined. Eventually she ran out of options and asked Bobby if he was gay. He'd said no and that Ripley was probably just hesitant because of his previous failed marriages.

Kara still thought he should find someone who could accept him for who he was. He was a really sweet guy. And Samantha was right - he was gorgeous. But she wasn't going to force it on him if he didn't want it.

Instead, she'd focus on the members of Bobby's team. Jack and Maya may have been seeing each other, but it was hard to tell. She was going to stay clear of both of them until she learned more about them. Miller kept talking about someone named Nikki. Travis and Grant had only just split up. Warren was happily married. But Vic and Andy? She knew neither of them were seeing anyone. Bobby had asked her not to meddle too much in their personal lives but she didn't agree. Everyone deserved to be as happy as she was with Robert Sullivan.

After the first barbeque, the team had decided that monthly barbeques at the captain's house should be a regular thing. This was the fourth month they'd hosted. And Kara felt comfortable enough with Vic to text her ahead of time and tell her to wear something cute.

Vic was laying on the bed when her phone beeped. She laughed after reading the text from Kara.

"I guess I'm going to be Kara's victim tonight," she called out. Lucas walked in from the kitchen, wearing her favorite soft sweater of his. "She told me to wear something cute. Any guesses on who the unlucky fool is?"

"Nothing unlucky about him. He gets to spend all afternoon talking to you," he said sweetly. He sat down on the side of the bed. "Are you going to tell her you're not interested?"

"And how exactly would I do that?" she asked, sitting up and looping her arms around his neck. "Sorry, Kara. I can't go out with your hot friend because I'm madly in love with the Fire Chief, your boyfriend's bff, but we've been keeping it secret."

"Vic, we don't use the term 'bff.'" He rubbed her upper arm. "We can tell them."

"Lucas, we talked about this. Not yet. Plus," she said, sliding a hand into his hair, "I've never seen Jealous Lucas. And I have to admit, I'm kind of looking forward to it." She winked at him. "Now, I have to find something cute to wear for my date. Travis will be here in a little while." She hopped off the side of the bed, walking to her dresser.

"Whatever you do, please don't wear the jeans with the thing." He turned towards her to find her holding the exact jeans and top he was talking about. She smirked at him. "Victoria, please don't. You'll give me a heart attack."

Vic was intent on doing that tonight anyways. "It's 50 degrees outside, and these are my cute jeans."

"But why do you have to wear that top? Can't you wear a different one?" The particular top in question apparently couldn't be worn with a bra and it drove Lucas crazy knowing she had nothing on under it. She turned to rummage through her drawers again, finally pulling out a different one.

"Happy?" She pulled her t-shirt off and tossed it at him before pulling the flowery top over her head.

"Yes, thank you." He stood and dropped her shirt in the hamper, kissing her cheek before going back to the kitchen to finish making the coleslaw for the barbeque.

It wasn't until she kissed him goodbye that she leaned up and whispered in his ear that she wasn't wearing anything under her jeans. She pressed a kiss just under his ear and hurried away before he could respond.

When she and Travis made it to Sullivan's, they noticed that there appeared to be a lot more cars than normal parked around the house. They walked up to the house, instantly realizing that there were a lot more guests than they'd previously anticipated. Walking to the house, Vic had realized how cold it actually was. She texted Lucas to bring her grey sweater when he came. He texted her back a photo of it on the backseat. She could tell from the photo that he was driving his department-issued vehicle.

Travis rang the bell and they heard someone yell, "It's open!" They made their way towards the kitchen, where they assumed everyone was.

"Vic, Travis! Hi." Kara came over, hugging each of them. "We decided to make it a big thing - my team and Bobby's. So all these people you don't know work with me at the PD's office. I'm pretty excited to see which team can outdrink the other."

"No way. Twenty on FD."

"Forty on the lawyers," she said.

"What're we betting on?" Gibson asked.

"Which side is going to outdrink the other, firefighters or lawyers?"

"I dated a lawyer once. They can drink. Like, a lot. I don't know. Twenty on the lawyers." Kara raised her beer towards him.

"Traitor," Vic said.

"Come on, there's someone I want you to meet," Kara said, taking Vic's arm. Vic let herself be led away but tossed a glance back at Gibson and Travis. Gibson smirked at her and Travis looked slightly worried.

"Should we stop this?" Travis asked.

"Nah. Vic can handle herself. Besides, seems like good payback to Ripley for the first barbeque." Gibson left Travis to find Maya.

With all the extra people in the house, the kitchen was fairly crowded. Travis could barely see where Kara had taken Vic. Shrugging, he went in search of a beer.

In the yard, Vic stood silently as Kara called her friend, Ben, over. Ben was a few inches taller than Lucas, his hair nearly as curly but brown, not blonde. He wore round glasses, and jeans that fit tight against his very nice butt. She loved Luke but she wasn't blind. Kara made the introductions and left with a wink for Vic.

"She loves playing matchmaker, huh?" Ben asked.

Vic laughed. "She seems to do it more than anyone else I've ever met."

"Want to get a drink?" he asked, noticing her empty hands. She nodded and the walked over the cooler Sullivan had filled with ice and beer.

"So do you work with Kara?" Vic asked, after sitting down. She'd deliberately chosen to sit on the chairs rather than the patio sofa to give them some distance. And there were a few other people around that would hopefully jump into their conversation.

"I used to. But I opened my own practice about a year ago. I still mainly do criminal defense, though. My office is over on Barrett St, by 14th."

"That's right next to the station!" Vic must've passed his office when Maya would drag her out for early morning runs.

"I didn't realize. What a coincidence." He leaned forward. "And you're on Robert's team?"

"That's right. Captain joined us last year after our last captain had some health problems."

"And how long have you been there?"

"Nearly four years. But I was EMS before that."

"Wow, that's amazing." He took a sip of his beer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a very tall man blanket headed her way. No way was this happening right now. She tried to busy herself by making it seem like she and Ben were in the middle of a very interesting conversation.

But she felt him step up next to her.

"Vic, I didn't know you'd be here."

Vic looked up at him, trying to hide her discomfort. After their third date (if you could call them dates), she'd stopped responding to all his texts and calls.

"Mayhorn. Hi."

"Who's your friend?" he asked, looking at Ben.

"Uh, this is Ben. Ben, this is Mayhorn."

"Dave," he said, extending his hand to Ben. Ben shook it.

"What're you doing here, Mayhorn? At my captain's house?" she asked, just as Travis rushed over with, "You'll never guess who's here." He stopped short. "Oops, guess you already know." He turned and awkwardly walked away. 

"I had the day off. My friend invited me to come along. Didn't know it was Sullivan's house until we got here and Herrera opened the door." He looked at Ben again before blurting out, "So this is why you never returned my calls?"

"We just met five minutes ago, man. Maybe I should give you two a few minutes." Ben excused himself. He was not about to get in the middle of whatever this was. And he really needed to thank Kara for introducing him to someone with a jealous ex. A jealous ex who looked like he could break him in two without much effort.

Across the yard, Maya stood with Gibson, Miller, and Andy, watching it all unfold before their eyes. "This is going to be so good."

"Mr. Station 23 sure does have great timing," Andy said.

"What're we looking at?" Ripley asked, coming up to stand next to Miller.

"Uh, Chief, hi," Miller said.

"Miller." He nodded his head in greeting. "Isn't that Mayhorn?" he asked as he saw Mayhorn approach Vic and the man she was talking to.

"Why yes it is, sir," Maya said, again unable to control her laughter. Gibson tried to get her to stop before she could add anything else. He stood uncomfortably waiting for whatever was coming next. Maya snickered when she saw new guy make a quick exit.

Ripley's hand tightened around his beer when Mayhorn rested a hand on Vic's shoulder. "Kara moved on to setting up firefighters with firefighters now?"

"Oh those two don't need any help being set up," Maya said. "God, I can't believe Vic slept with someone from 23. Their people there are the worst." Gibson nudged her and she remembered it was the Chief she was talking to.

"Slow and unshowered," Miller added.

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, his eyes never leaving Vic. "Interesting."

"It was a long time ago, sir," Gibson added, trying to diffuse the bomb. He didn't know how much, if anything, Vic had told Ripley about Mr. Man Blanket.

"Interesting," he repeated. Sully came up, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Sully."

"What're we all doing over here?"

"Watching Vic uncomfortably try to get away from Man Blanket 23," Andy replied. Was it Mr. Station 23? Mr. Man Blanket? Just Man Blanket? Andy couldn't remember.

"23? Who invited 23 here?" Sullivan asked. "And do I need to be worried about what's happening over there? I have enough on my plate with you lot."

"It's been over for a while, Captain," Miller said. "But I don't think Mayhorn got the message," he added when he saw Mayhorn take the seat Ben had vacated and place his hand on Vic's knee. Ripley cleared his throat when he saw Vic try to nudge Mayhorn's hand off her and Mayhorn not budge.

"Maybe we should go find out if the rest of 23 is joining us," Ripley said. "I probably shouldn't be here if there are going to be too many junior firefighters drinking." Sully nodded. They walked over together.

Vic immediately looked up when Ripley approached. Her eyes widening for a moment.

"Chief," Mayhorn said, standing, removing his hand (finally) from Vic. "I wasn't aware you'd be here today, sir." He took an uncomfortable step back as Lucas leveled him with his best Chief face, as Vic affectionately called it.

"The rest of your Station joining you today, Mayhorn?" Sullivan asked.

"Um, no. I came with my friend, Sam. She wanted to make some guy who rejected her jealous." Vic tried to hide her smile by taking a sip of her beer.

"Not sure how you plan to do that by hitting on Hughes here."

"Oh, no. That's not, what, no no wait," he stammered. "We're just talking."

Vic rubbed a hand down her arm. "It's getting pretty cold out here. I'm going to grab my jacket." She excused herself and prayed the conversation between the three guys would end as soon as she left. Walking around the house, she looked up and down the street for the Chief's car. She spotted it about half a block up. Turning quickly, she made her way down the block to the car. She opened the door and grabbed her sweater. When she closed the door, she nearly yelped. Lucas was leaning back against the passenger side door, arms crossed.

"Jesus."

"No, Lucas," he said, grinning. "Didn't think I'd be fighting off two suitors today."

"Suitors? Seriously, Luke?" She stuck her arms through the sleeves of her sweater. It bunched up slightly under her arms. He automatically reached out to straighten it for her.

"You jealous yet?" she asked, taking a step closer.

"Why do you think we interrupted your conversation?" She smiled up at him. He couldn't help himself. He cupped her face and drew her to him for a kiss. She let her hand rest comfortable on his chest.

"So much better than Mayhorn," she said when he pulled away. He winced. "I'm kidding. I mean, not kidding. You're better than everyone. But you know what I mean." He smiled because he did know. Over their months together, he'd learned to speak fluent Vic Hughes.

"I love you, Victoria. We should get you back to that party before someone notices we're both missing."

"God forbid I have three men fighting for my attention on one day." She pressed another kiss to his mouth before pushing him towards the house, telling him she'd come back after another minute. 

Unfortunately for them, Andy and Sullivan had gotten curious as to why the Chief had followed so closely after Vic left the conversation. They'd had a front row seat to the entire scene by the car from the porch. They hurried back inside the house when Vic pushed Ripley back towards the house.

"Vic and the Chief?" Andy whispered. She crossed her arms around her chest.

"Not here," Sullivan said. He took her by the elbow and led her down the hall to his office. He shut the door firmly behind them. "You didn't know?"

"Of course not. You didn't know?"

"You think I'd let Kara try to set him up if I knew?" Sullivan paced around the office, hands on his hips.

"What do we do now? I mean, he's the Chief!" She sat on the edge of his desk, which only served to remind her of a very sexy dream she'd recently had about him. She stood abruptly moving as far away from the desk as possible. "How long do you think they've been together?"

He shrugged. "We do nothing. I'll handle this. Don't say anything to anyone." He opened the door to leave.

"They look happy," she said quietly.

Sullivan swallowed. "Yeah, they do," was all he could add. He tried to push away thoughts of the department code he'd been reminding himself of for the last several months. Ever since they were trapped together in the Aid Car. Since before he'd met Kara. He ran into Ripley just as he made his way back to the kitchen. Ripley looked past him to Andy who was coming down the same hallway. Ripley raised his eyebrow in question. Sullivan shook his head. "Let's get those burgers on the grill." He led his best friend away before Ripley or Andy could ask too many question.

Kara came over to them as they put the last of the meat on the grill, carrying a fresh beer for each of them.

"So was no one going to tell me that Vic's apparently dating a firefighter?"

"Where'd you hear that?" Ripley asked, trying to remain calm. She'd said 'firefighter' after all, not specifically him.

"I tried setting her up with Ben and he said some firefighter came over while they were talking."

"_Was_ dating, dear. The team says that thing with Mayhorn has been over for a while."

"Did anyone tell Mayhorn?" she asked.

"I think someone just did," Ripley said, pointing to Vic who had just dumped her beer over Mayhorn's head. Mayhorn looked both sad and angry at the same time. "That doesn't look good." They all watched Vic storm away from him, towards Andy and Gibson, who were sitting near the grill.

"Fucking Man Blanket apparently doesn't understand 'not interested,'" he heard her grumble. He stiffened. What exactly did that mean? Andy had the good sense to look quickly in their direction to gauge the Chief's reaction. She decided they should probably continue this conversation elsewhere or Ripley was going to blow a fuse. Vic didn't want to go inside but Andy drug her in anyways.

They took her back inside the kitchen. Most people had migrated out into the yard by this point, so they could talk in relative privacy.

"What the hell, Herrera? Is 'no' a word you don't understand either?"

"Chief was getting angry. I figured you probably wouldn't want him to hear the end of this conversation." Vic didn't know how to respond to that. She looked up at Gibson, brows furrowed. He shook his head. "Oh for Christ's sake," Andy said wanting to stop their silent conversation. "I saw you at the car." Vic's jaw slightly dropped.

"Um," she cleared her throat. "Anyone else know?"

"Sullivan."

Vic put her head in her hands. Her plan for a fun Saturday teasing and torturing Lucas had turned into an actual nightmare.

"What'd Mayhorn do?" Gibson asked, rolling up his sleeves. "Do Miller and I need to have a chat with him?"

"I think he got it now? But he kept touching me even after I told him I was seeing someone. He said I didn't need to lie. We'd had fun together, we could have fun together again. And then he grabbed my ass."

"Jerk," Andy muttered.

"He touched you," an eerily calm Lucas asked from the doorway.

"Luke," she hissed, watching him take a step backwards into the yard. She watched him scan the yard until his eyes settled on Mayhorn. Like Gibson, he rolled his sleeves up and stalked towards Mayhorn. She thanked every star in the sky when Sullivan stepped in front of him before he made it off the porch. She saw Sullivan say something sternly to Ripley before she saw them both relax. Sullivan put a hand on Ripley's shoulder and directed him back towards the grill. She watched Sullivan go to Mayhorn instead. She saw Mayhorn nod and drop his head. He nodded again and quickly left. "I should go talk to Luke." Andy and Gibson nodded.

She walked over to the grill. Lucas was flipping the patties over, one by one. She stood next to him. He didn't say anything. Taking the beer from his hand, she took a small sip to wet her throat. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

He looked over his shoulder to see who was around. "Victoria, he touched you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I handled it." She handed him the beer back, desperately wishing she could grab his hand, kiss his cheek, something. "Hey look at me," she said gently when he continued flipping burgers.

He flips a few more. She takes the spatula from him. He finally looks at her. "I'm fine," she says again.

  
"I know you can handle yourself. But I don't like knowing that he couldn't respect what you said."

"And on Monday morning, Chief Ripley can handle that," she said with a small smile. "But my boyfriend, Lucas, I just need him to be here right now."

He nodded down at her, and finally gave a small smile back. She gave him the spatula back but stayed standing next to him rather than mingling again.

From the doorway, Andy watched the two of them interact. "I don't know how I didn't see any of it earlier." Gibson and Sullivan looked at her. "They have massive googly eyes."

"Once you see it though, you realize how much they love each other," Gibson said. "And I think they're called 'heart eyes,' Herrera."

"I'll be damned," Sullivan muttered.

**Author's Note:**

> Barrett and 14th is actually just around the corner from where the Station is in real life. Just a funny coincidence with the names.


End file.
